Setanta's Loss - ESPN's Gain

[Pablo Chicago]

BBC Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8113702.stm)

ESPN has bought the rights to show 46 games in next season's English Premier League that were to have been shown by struggling broadcaster Setanta.

Disney-owned ESPN has won the two packages of games shown on Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings. It says both will be sold through BSkyB.

It has also won the 23 games per season Setanta was due to show from 2010-13.

It is the first time that ESPN will broadcast live Premier League football in the UK.

Discuss.

[Dtrip77]

ok so they showing the games in the UK.....

what about the USA??? i wanna watch the games too lol

[Fabugas]

I think that FSC holds ALL of the rights to the EPL in the US but sublicenses some of the games to Setanta. If Setanta goes under (which it undoubtedly will), that means that FSC will either have to sublicense to someone else (ESPN or Gol being the only viable options as far as I can tell) or they may put up matches on PPV. The ideal solution would be to create a DirecTV pay package where all of the games are shown if you pay $100 but I doubt that is what will happen. I am really nervous about this and fear we may be watching a lot of web streams this season.

If someone knows otherwise, please pipe in.

[IMALONDONER]

I think that FSC holds ALL of the rights to the EPL in the US but sublicenses some of the games to Setanta. If Setanta goes under (which it undoubtedly will), that means that FSC will either have to sublicense to someone else (ESPN or Gol being the only viable options as far as I can tell) or they may put up matches on PPV. The ideal solution would be to create a DirecTV pay package where all of the games are shown if you pay $100 but I doubt that is what will happen. I am really nervous about this and fear we may be watching a lot of web streams this season.

If someone knows otherwise, please pipe in.


I just hope that ESPN does not inflict Tommy Smythe on us now that they have won EPL rights. The fact that they lost the Champions League was acceptable because we would no longer have to listen to this numskull and his boring cliches. Muting the channel when he was on was the only way to make watching ESPN coverage of Champions League enjoyable, but obivously meant that losing any feel for the atmosphere. Please, please, please ESPN, do not inflict this man on us again!

[Fabugas]

See the following message on the Setanta US website. Their operations are unaffected...

http://www.setanta.com/global/us.html

It has been announced today by the Board of Setanta Sport Holdings Limited that it has not proved possible to secure the additional financing required to ensure the future viability of certain Setanta businesses in Great Britain. As a consequence, the Board has taken the decision to seek the appointment of Receivers to the parent company, Setanta Sport Holdings Limited, and certain subsidiaries in Ireland, and Administrators to certain English subsidiaries.

Setanta International is not covered by these appointments.
Setanta’s services in the US will continue to trade normally.

Also, it has been widely reported in various media channels, Setanta Sports has had its agreement to broadcast 46 Barclays Premier League matches in the UK terminated.

This development does not affect our channels and other services in the US.

Setanta Sports in the US is a separate operation that has separate agreement to show the Barclay’s Premier League. Our channels and other services in the US continue to broadcast and our subscribers can still enjoy our programming including the Lions Tour of South Africa and the UEFA U21 European Championship.

New customers are welcome to subscribe to watch some of the world’s best soccer and rugby either by contacting our cable and satellite partners or online at www.setanta.com.

We thank you for your continued interest in Setanta Sports and look forward to bringing you a wealth of sport over the coming months and years.

[ACRealUnitedFC SpA]

fabugas,

Let's hope that remains the case. Nothing good will come from ESPN brodcasting the PL in the US. Tommy Smythe, Lalas, and PPV on 360. I'll cry in my cornflakes if this happens.

[ultras1848]

however if Setanta US does suffer, I would hope ESPN would pick up Setanta's void. First, to expose every cable/satellite subscriber to quality soccer. Secondly, if they do somehow get the rights, they need to USE THE INTERNATIONAL AUDIO FEED, just like FSC does, there is nothing like the quality of onsite commentators. When ESPN and GOLTV use the studio commentators it is the worst coverage ever.

PS Does ESPN even exist in the UK? the ESPN.co.uk website is nothing but a post it.

[chrizzah]

fabugas,

Let's hope that remains the case. Nothing good will come from ESPN brodcasting the PL in the US. Tommy Smythe, Lalas, and PPV on 360. I'll cry in my cornflakes if this happens.

I'd doubt they would use Lalas. They would use the announcers used for matches being shown around the world. Obviously Tommy Smythe is incredibly annoying, but I would be pretty happy having Derrick Rae doing matches.

[LaSelectaCuscatleca]

ESPN as stated in http://www.the90thminute.com/index.php/soccer/2009/06/spanish-primera-division-espn-buys-la-liga-usa-tv-rights/ will be broadcasting primera division game in the US. I like GolTV broadcasting these games in Spanish, but it would be perfect if we could get an HD feed from ESPN for both the Spanish Primera and the EPL.

[Wuz314159]

Sorry for dragging the EPL thread into the US market, but I'm still confused & can't start a thread elsewhere.

The ESPN deal is for picking up the Sentanta matches in the UK.
But did I hear rumours that the US deal was up?
Is the FSC - EPL deal for the '09-'10 season; and is then up?

I've grown accustom to 4 EPL matches per week on FSC, I can't imagine being relegated to one per week on espn. That's like a MLS number of games aired.

[Big Soccer Member]

ESPN are very stupid. They have not learnt from Setanta's mistakes. Setanta went bust because they need 1.9 million subscribers at a tenner a month to break even. There beak subscription base was 1.2 million. This basically showed to everyone that people in Britain already pay for a lot of football for Sky Sports, and that they don't want to pay money on top of the money they already pay for Sky. So, what do ESPN do? They charge even more than Setanta did. What's more, Setanta had a lot of other sport too. Where ESPN just has the Premier League and some American sports nobody cares about. I wont' be subscribing to ESPN, and I can't see many others do so. At this rate, their UK project will not last long.

[RichardL]

ESPN are very stupid. They have not learnt from Setanta's mistakes. Setanta went bust because they need 1.9 million subscribers at a tenner a month to break even. There beak subscription base was 1.2 million. This basically showed to everyone that people in Britain already pay for a lot of football for Sky Sports, and that they don't want to pay money on top of the money they already pay for Sky. So, what do ESPN do? They charge even more than Setanta did. What's more, Setanta had a lot of other sport too. Where ESPN just has the Premier League and some American sports nobody cares about. I wont' be subscribing to ESPN, and I can't see many others do so. At this rate, their UK project will not last long.

With just 23 games, and little else beyond low interest American sports on offer, they are effectively asking £5 a game for a selection of less inspiring premier league games.

People had a lot of complaints about Setanta, but they weren't generally about the range of sports it showed, which was pretty decent.

Maybe ESPN will add more, but it's hard to see a schedule like this (+2 to 3 premier leagues games a month), from the current ESPN America channel, being what the British public has been waiting for.

6.30am College Football Live
7.00am Around The Horn
7.30am Pardon The Interruption
8.00am As Live NASCAR Now
9.00am Baseball Tonight - MLB
10.00am 2009 Home Run Derby - MLB
12.30pm All-Star Futures Game - MLB
3.00pm All-Star Legends/Celebrity Softball Game - MLB
4.00pm 2009 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (!)
5.00pm NASCAR Now
6.00pm Baseball Tonight
7.00pm 2009 Home Run Derby - MLB
9.30pm All-Star Legends/Celebrity Softball Game - MLB
10.30pm As Live College Football Live
11.00pm As Live Around The Horn
11.30pm As Live Pardon The Interruption
12.00am As Live NASCAR Now
12.30am Live 80th All-Star Game - MLB
5.00am 1996 Home Run Derby - MLB

[Pablo Chicago]

From a curious Yank: How much did Setanta charge and how much is ESPN going to charge? When does the channel go-live?

Would also love to see a Saturday schedule during the season. Hopefully you'll get more than WSOP reruns.

[lanman]

ESPN are very stupid. They have not learnt from Setanta's mistakes. Setanta went bust because they need 1.9 million subscribers at a tenner a month to break even. There beak subscription base was 1.2 million. This basically showed to everyone that people in Britain already pay for a lot of football for Sky Sports, and that they don't want to pay money on top of the money they already pay for Sky. So, what do ESPN do? They charge even more than Setanta did. What's more, Setanta had a lot of other sport too. Where ESPN just has the Premier League and some American sports nobody cares about. I wont' be subscribing to ESPN, and I can't see many others do so. At this rate, their UK project will not last long.

Setanta's overheads are likely to have been much higher than ESPN's will be. ESPN are using Sky's production team to broadcast whereas I believe Setanta used their own so there is likely to be a significant saving there. Setanta also was paying for rights on more than just Premier League games while ESPN already holds the rights for MLB, NHL and Hotdog Eating so the only increase in cost is for the Premier League games. Setanta had multiple channels broadcasting (including 24 hour news) while ESPN will only have the one.
Also, ESPN are a much larger company than Setanta and may be willing to run at a loss for a year in the UK while they potentially add more football or other sports to their channel in an attempt to build up an audience.

[RichardL]

ESPN's overheads will be lower, but I'd suspect Setanta's running costs weren't the problem, just the huge contract they'd taken out with the premier league.

ESPN are paying a lot less for the rights, so they won't need as many subscribers, but they'll probably still need somewhere around a million or so for it to work. I can't see them getting anywhere near with such a limited range of programmes on offer.

The "foot in the door" angle is more likely, with it being an advantage to having a channel up and runing, with some kind of base already, if they intend to aggressively go for a lot of the rights the next time they are up for renewal. That isn't for a few years yet though.

[Big Soccer Member]

Is ESPN classic going to merge with the new ESPN channel?

[chrizzah]

4.00pm 2009 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (!)

This alone is worth getting the channel for one month. I watched a competitive eating contest a couple of years ago (on ESPN no less) and it was pretty amazing in its absolute stupidity. They announce the thing as if it is a legitimate sporting contests discussing the training regiments, the contestants competitive history and giving play-by-play. The best part of the show was when the color commentator started shouting really excitedly about one of the contestants "He has gone to the water way to early. You cannot go to the water that early." while the contestant drank water as he struggled to keep down half a plate of pasta.

As far as ESPN not learning from Setanta, that's really apples and oranges. This is more of a testing the water thing for ESPN. ESPN is owned by Disney and has a big presence in the US, Asia and South America. It has absolutely no similarity to Setanta. Setanta set its price in order to stay alive as a business. ESPN can afford to lose money on this channel before picking the direction it wants to go (or even withdrawing from the market). The success or failure in the UK will have no bearing on the company overall.

[psc2009]

It just seems a little odd to me that "The Worldwide Leader In Sports" buys this huge EPL package, but then doesn't clarify how or if it will even be available in the USA or its markets outside of the UK. That seems like a massive oversight that could be remedied in three or four sentences.

[Big Soccer Member]

It just seems a little odd to me that "The Worldwide Leader In Sports" buys this huge EPL package, but then doesn't clarify how or if it will even be available in the USA or its markets outside of the UK. That seems like a massive oversight that could be remedied in three or four sentences.
They have. These rights are for the UK only. Fox and Setanta own the USA ones. You thinking they didn't release a statement seems like a massive oversight that could be remedied in a google search.

[suncoastranger]

Sorry for dragging the EPL thread into the US market, but I'm still confused & can't start a thread elsewhere.

The ESPN deal is for picking up the Sentanta matches in the UK.
But did I hear rumours that the US deal was up?
Is the FSC - EPL deal for the '09-'10 season; and is then up?

I've grown accustom to 4 EPL matches per week on FSC, I can't imagine being relegated to one per week on espn. That's like a MLS number of games aired.

As far as the US broadcasting is concerned, and I stated this on another forums thread on BS, wishing for one game, that isn't mid week, would be asking a lot for much of the year. ESPN's bread and butter is college football/gridiron/American football; no way on earth they surrender those ratings to show EPL games in the States on a Saturday and they would be foolish to do so because college football pays the bills for the company.